Abstract: The article is devoted to the study of nuclear microsatellites, previously developed for the study of natural saiga populations, as genetic markers to establish the origin of a batch of saiga derivatives in order to curb their illicit trafficking in international trade. An analysis of a sample of 156 samples of saiga antlers from the population of the Northwestern Caspian Sea and confiscated batches of suspected origin from the Republic of Kazakhstan for 9 microsatellite loci showed that autosomal microsatellite loci do not allow to identify differences between saiga derivatives originating from the territory of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Keywords: saiga, rare species, microsatellites, genetic marker, genetic examination.

For citation: Zinevich L.S., Tukhbatullin A.R., Rozhkova D.N., Novikov V.A., Ijin M.I., Sorokin A.G. Analysis of the possibility of using autosomal microsatellite loci to determine the population affiliation of Saiga tatarica horns from the western part of the species range // Environment protection and nature reserve management. 2023. Vol. 4. No. 4. P. 5–15.